Rossier Audiences

Eight faculty members added to USC Rossier Faculty for 2018-19

September 4, 2018

Two enter into new positions, while six are new members of the Trojan Family

USC Rossier is welcoming eight total faculty members into new positions for the 2018-19 school year. With a range of expertise, the school faculty members span all concentrations and several programs, including the newly launched School Counseling program.

Stephen J. Aguilar’s areas of expertise include motivation and self-regulated learning as they relate to the design and implementation of educational technologies. He specializes in learning analytics, data visualizations and gameful approaches to teaching and learning.

His research focuses on the design, efficacy and motivational implications of learning analytics-based applications, and how they can be used in ways that promote social justice and educational achievement among ethnic and racial minority students.

Yasemin Copur-Gencturk’s work examines the mathematical knowledge teachers need to promote student learning in diverse classrooms with special attention to designing innovative learning opportunities for teachers. She also examines the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of students’ learning of mathematics and their students’ academic performance.

Yajaira S. CurielAssistant Teaching Professor of Education
Marriage and Family Therapy Program

Yajaira S. Curiel’s clinical experience has focused on providing culturally attuned, high quality, individual, couple and family therapy to marginalized populations around the areas of trauma, connection, intimacy, loss and having meaningful, fulfilling relationships.

Curiel’s clinical experience also includes providing bilingual family therapy services to Latino populations. She has worked at agencies such as Congreso de Latinos Unidos Inc., Intercultural Family Services in Philadelphia and St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y.

Stephanie Dewing’s work is focused on supporting language development across the curriculum with an emphasis on English-learners. Dewing has extensive experience both nationally and internationally in K-12 and higher education as a Spanish and English-language development (ELD) teacher and coach.

Prior to joining USC Rossier, she was a site supervisor in inclusive elementary education and an instructor of TESOL at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

After finishing his undergraduate degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Adam Kho joined Teach For America, which returned him to his hometown of Atlanta, where he taught high school mathematics for three years and served subsequently as an instructional coach for two years.

Kho’s current research includes an evaluation of Tennessee’s portfolio model for school turnaround, a series of studies evaluating the effects of charter schools on student achievement and on the sorting of students both academically and demographically, and the impact of the Community Eligibility Provision on various student outcomes in Tennessee.

Akilah Lyons-Moore has served in public education for the past 17 years, with the majority of her career as a high school social science-history teacher in a large school district in Southern California.

During the past five years, Lyons-Moore transitioned to charter school leadership, where she served as a director of curriculum and instruction for an independent start-up charter school. She then took on the position of assistant principal and then principal for a top performing charter high school in the San Fernando Valley.

Marsha RiggioAssociate Teaching Professor of Education,
School Counseling Program

Marsha Boveja Riggio has 15 years of higher education experience with her most recent faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins University and Argosy University. Riggio has more than 20 years of mental health experience and is a licensed clinical professional counselor and national certified counselor with a private counseling and supervision practice.

Riggio is a veteran of the U.S. Army, where she was a behavioral science sergeant/mental health officer for 15 years. Riggio’s research interests are around transculturalism, adolescents, supervision and the military.

Rufus Tony SpannAssistant Teaching Professor of Education,
School Counseling Program

Rufus Tony Spann previously served as a department chair at Argosy University and as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins. He is an international speaker and trainer, an owner of a private practice and past president of the Maryland Counseling Association (2014-15).

Spann advocates for the rights of others on a local and federal level, as well as speaking nationally and internationally concerning social justice. Spann is a nationally certified school psychologist, an approved clinical supervisor, a nationally certified counselor, and licensed clinical professional counselor in Maryland, Washington and Virginia.